Sudan’s Vice-President Taha hails “progressing ties” with UK
September 07, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Osman Moahmed Taha yesterday lauded “progressing ties” with the United Kingdom (UK), signaling Khartoum’s satisfaction with the UK’s new Sudan policy which aims to improve business relations.
Kay, who assumed his position last month, was reported to have said that the UK is keen to improve business, trade and investment relations with Sudan. Kay also said that UK will organize mutual visits by businessmen from both countries.
On August 6, the British embassy in Khartoum unveiled plans to fund a project to train and equip Sudan’s border-control guards in order to improve their capacity in curbing the influx of illegal immigrants from Ethiopia and Eritrea. In a press conference on the same day, Kay pledged that his government would provide 300,000 pounds sterling to fund the project which will be organized by the International Organization for Migration.
“We in the UK and Sudan have shared interests in working together to improve the capacity of the government of Sudan in controlling migration” Kay said.
On August 5, Sudan’s minister of finance asked the British government to help Sudan’s quest to have its large foreign debts written off.
The UK’s new coalition government has placed the improvement of trade relations at the top of its list of policy priorities for Sudan, as was said by Henry Bellingham, UK’s state minister for Africa in his visit to Sudan in July.
Sudan’s often volatile relationship with its former colonizer reached its nadir in 1993 when Khartoum expelled Peter Streams, the British ambassador at the time, due to a row over an official by the Archbishop of Canterbury to south Sudan.
(ST)